Mr Speaker, it is common knowledge that India and South Africa's relationship is a very long and powerful one. Madiba referred to Mahatma Gandhi as a "Sacred Warrior". Martin Luther King Jnr said India's Gandhiji was "the guiding light of our technique of nonviolent social change", and in 1956 Dr King travelled to India to deepen his understanding of Gandhi's principles. Gandhiji said that "the greatest integrity of an individual is one's religion".
Communities have fought and lost lives for our democracy. They did not fight in order for some white cartoonist to make a joke of it, and benefit from it at the expense of the people. Hinduism has indeed advanced from the dark days of apartheid into the light of democracy and development. Over one billion people across the world celebrate Diwali, or Deepavali, the triumph of good over evil and light over darkness, and they worship Lord Ganesha as one of the greatest deities. Such offensive cartoons are insensitive and smack of racism and religious intolerance.
Zapiro is, in the Indian language, a "dougla", a loose maverick that can do as he pleases. He undermines the cornerstone of our democracy - people's integrity. He also tried to make a laughing stock of our President. He is souring relationships between our country and outside countries.
This kind of behaviour must be condemned. Religions are indeed for all communities. When you insult them, it hurts. More especially, one should note the fact that nobody talked about the point Zapiro was trying to make about the cricket. They said that he was insulting the religion. Parliament needs to start looking seriously into the limiting of cartoonists like Zapiro. The MF condemns this type of reckless, insensitive and abusive figure of speech and calls on Zapiro and the Sunday Times to withdraw it and apologise, as it was a very short-sighted thing for them to allow. [Time expired.] [Applause.]